Steven F.: October 2006 Archives

Yesterday was a busy day. Gracie saw the doctor and did some pulmonary testing. At this point in time she does not have asthma. The tests show her lungs and lung capacity to be well above normal. She is extremely healthy. Should she have another episode like she had last month in Georgia when we ended up in the hospital the doctor will begin testing her for allergies. Steven had his well baby check-up, too. He is 28 3/4 inches tall. He weighs 21 lbs 9 oz. The doctor was very impressed with his growth and developement. She says, "I what can I tell you? He is a perfect baby. He can't get much better than he already is." This we already knew. :-) I took Gracie to school, filled out all of the forms and left an emergency inhaler with school nurse. Just in case. Since it was a cool rainy morning it felt like a perfect day for chicken and dumplings. I add a few peas and carrots for color. After making the dumplings I baked it in a pie just like my kids love. The flakey crust on top is the best part. Brush with a little beaten egg for a beautiful crust. Colby had to leave for school and I served her up a helping with extra crust before I remembered to take a photo of the dumpling pie when it came out of the oven. Mmmmm ... delicious buttery crust. Then I baked pumpkin pie. Steve had requested it. Served with whipped cream and a touch of grated nutmeg. Because I like to please everyone I also baked a carrot cake. Yummy cream cheese frosting! They were all good! Tonight - leftovers. **Update The recipe for the chicken and dumplings can be found on my recipe journal.

When Steven was born we were blessed with so many gifts. At the age of 6 months we were still recieving gifts. People were very kind to us. Hi, Auntie Hope! So many of the clothes were just the cutest things. So many of the clothes were purchased out of season I feared we would not get use them. I love my schoolbus sleeper! Stevens growth is right on track. At 8+ months age he is wearing 9 months sized clothing. Which is most excellent because fall has come with blustery temperatures of winter. Frost has been on the pumpkins two mornings in a row. Living in a 98 year old farm house you can see how long sleeved, footed, one piece pajamas are very important with a baby who kicks off the covers all night long. How cute am I? The sleeper in these photos is one Hope sent when Steven was born. I kept it folded in the drawer by my bed hoping that he wouldn't outgrow it before he even got to wear it. This is one of my favorites because of the school bus motif and the plush little red car that came with it. The End Thank you again, Hope. We love this sleeper. It is soft and comfy and keeps a baby with sweaty toes the perfect temperature to sleep well. BTW, notice anything wrong with these photos? Steven hates playing inside the play yard. He wants to be outside of it. What a major waste of $65. The only reason we bought it was to be able to keep him away from the fireplace. Which we have had no problems doing. I am beginning to think we are looking at the most expensive Christmas tree barrier to keep small hands away from delicate ornaments. Other than corralling his toys I can think of no other use for it. :-/

Those rains we had last month? Did more damage than we thought. This is what my dining room ceiling looks like this morning. This is part of the original house. Lathe and plaster ceiling. Very cool. This baby has been doing this since we came back from Georgia. He turned 8 months over the weekend. I suspect he may be walking before the month is out. He is very brave and lets go without having his balance. He is very cool, also. I am not so sure I am ready for him to grow up so fast but I am excited to be in his presence and able to witness every single one of his success to date. I pray I am always blessed to do so.

With so much to read and with more and more being published every minute of the day, do you ever wonder about the books written in the distant past? Do you ever revisit the books that were once required reading in high schools (and college)? Do you constantly seek out the new and wait for the next volume a writer may be working on? As much as I want to be a great American writer I do not believe I have the talent to be so. And that is okay. It is something I accept. It has freed me to write for myself and not worry about what a reader would think -of my talent, my skills, my word choice and even of myself. Perhaps I will one day finish a novel and maybe it will be next month during NaNoWriMo. And maybe it won't. But the desire is there. Saturday Steve and I stopped in a used book store run by Friends of the Library. Many of the books were old from the 1930's and 40's. Some were more modern. Much of the fiction was the likes of V.C. Andrews and John Grisham, etc. There wasn't near as many paperback books as you would expect to find in a used book store. As I worked my way around the walls of the narrow little building I delighted myself with a few cookbooks from the 1930's. (50 cents!!) I choose a couple of first edition books from the turn of the century with such mundane (hahaha!) topics as Napolean and Queen Victoria which will be excellent gifts for Colby for Christmas. She will just scream with delight. Steve was much more methodical and studied sections of books like a scientist. He chose several books that dealt with the history of the world and such having been written by H.G. Wells and whatnot. Not really my cup of tea but the cookbooks weren't his so we were even. In a box on the floor I thumbed through old hardbacks of ladies fiction and was pleased to read the dust jackets. For some reason it just made me smile. I did choose one of these books and brought it home with me for $1. I like the title and lovely red binding. If it turned out to be boring and a struggle to get through I hadn't really lost anything because for the moment the books had given me at least a dollars worth of pleasure and delight in its discovery. Last night as I soaked in a hot bath I broke open the red book and instantly fell in love with the charming lead character and the voice and tone in which the author wrote. So pleased am I that I formulated a plan to hurry back down to the store today ASAP to see if the sister novel to the one I chose might be in that old box or somewhere on the dusty shelves. What did I find? I am so glad you asked! The Man Miss Susie Loved by Augusta Tucker. The sister novel Miss Susie Slagle was adapted to a screen play in the 40's and featured Lillian Gish. I was so charmed by the style of writing that I did a little research and found this on rootsweb:

Tucker, Augusta. Second Interview. Hazel B. Greene Journalist February 9, 1938 Interview with Augusta Tucker Fort Towson, Oklahoma I was born in 1867, at Indianapolis, Indiana. My father, Dr. O. N. Tucker, was born in South Carolina, but my mother, Sara Ann Apple Tucker, was born in Indiana. My father, Dr. O.N. Tucker, was selected by the Choctaw council as a white physician to administer to the sick, wounded, etc., of Doaksville and the surrounding community. There were plenty of Indian Medicine Men, but some of the most progressive citizens thought that a man who had graduated from a Medical College should be more competent to care for the sick, so they held a meeting and decided to "import" a white doctor. My father applied for the honor of being selected by the Council of the Choctaw Nation, and won the place, over the applications of several more, so he and his family of children some of us grown, moved over into the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, in January, I believe of 1884.Before coming to the Territory we had been living at Paris, Texas, to which state we had come from Indiana. I, being one of the grown children, and being qualified to teach school, began doing that all over the country. I taught up north of Doaksville, I taught at Doaksville, and I taught a school on Scott Hill, which is now called Terry Hill at the west edge of the present town of Hugo. I also taught out at the Long Creek School, in the Turnbull neighborhood: that was about 3 miles northwest of the present town of Hugo. Then of course, there was no Hugo and Goodland was the railroad station. In those days, "the teacher" was considered pretty smart, simply because she knew enough to teach school, and she automatically became a leader in all social and religious activities. She was suppose to lead the singing at the funerals; she was supposed to be always introducing new games at the parties of the neighborhood. She was called upon to write deeds and mortgages, and pioneer teachers in the Indian Territory frequently held Notary Public commissions. Being "the teacher" was, I suppose, one of the reasons that Thomas E. Sanguine selected me to make notes for him at a meeting that was held at Goodland, and I believe that meeting was one of the first meetings of the Dawes commission to be held in the Choctaw Nation. Few who were there that day are living today. The party got off of the train at Goodland and walked about an eighth of a mile to a grove of trees, where benches and a speakers stand had been placed for the comfort and convenience of the people who would speak and listen to the speakers. I am not sure of the date of that meeting, but of course, it is a mater of history. I simply am calling attention to the fact that I was one of the many in attendance that day, and am one of the few who are living today. I am past seventy now. Among those present whom I recall were: Bailey Spring, Thomas E. Sanguine, Green McCurtain, Willie W. Wilson, V. M. Locke Sr., Frank Ledbetter and I believe George Scott of Stigler was there. He is the son-in-law of Green McCurtain. The object of the speeches was to persuade the Choctaw Indians of the advisability of individual allotment of the Indian Lands. I made notes of all of the speeches that were made that day, but unfortunately I never kept them. I imagine that they are on record somewhere. I remember, especially one old "Snake" Indian, Ben. He had ridden his little pony all the way from away up in the sand hills in Cedar County, to be at that meeting and represent his community. But he was never convinced that individual allotments were the best thing for the Indians. Poor old fellow, he was so old then that he looked pitiful after his long ride. He lived to be nearly a hundred years old and dropped dead after a ride of about twenty miles on his little pony to attend a funeral of a granddaughter.

As I searched a little more I found this in the New York Times:

Paid Notice: Deaths TOWNSEND, AUGUSTA TUCKER Published: March 9, 1999 TOWNSEND-Augusta Tucker. 94. On March 5, 1999. Survived by many nieces and nephews. Funeral service on Thursday, March 11, 11 AM, at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation, Baltimore, MD. Graveside service Thursday, March 11, 2:30 PM, at St. Anne's Cemetery, Annapolis, MD. John M. Taylor Funeral Home Inc.

I can't help but wonder what she was like in person as charmed as I am by her words. I have decided to try and read more of those dusty old books at the used book store and not try to seek out the newer popular fiction. For some reason new fiction doesn't impress me these days. I find I am easily bored with the popular writers of our day. I find that a lot of the subject matter doesn't suit me. Heaven forbid I should get offended by some of the subject matters. Maybe I am tired of the attempts to be titillated with less than savory characters or stations in life. Whatever the reason I am now charmed with the past and will be seeking out more of these old books to be my companions through the long cold winter. I have also decided that I should try to find my voice in my writing style and will give much attention to an attempt at writing and being charming next month for the NaNoWriMo -unless real life gets in the way -which it does tend to do at the most inoportune time. Is anyone out there considering giving NaNo a try this year? I need a buddy to kick me in the rear encourage me when I start slipping this time. Raehan? Are you writing this time? Badger? You can add me as a Buddy through the profile section. Here's mine. Anyone? Please?!? ... Steve did some maintenance on his Deere saturday. It needed a good lubing and an oil change. Steven helped. Content to just sit with his Daddy and play.
Inspecting dirt -one grain of sand at a time.
Dirty Fingers = Hard Days Work.